***************************

BAGHDAD, Iraq (Zenit.org).

The patriarch of Babylon of the Chaldeans confirmed that Father Hanna Saad Sirop, kidnapped in Baghdad on Aug. 15, was released.

"Father Hanna is well, he is at home and at last will now be able to resume his work in the Baghdad parish," Patriarch Emmanuel III Delly told the Missionary International Service News Agency. The circumstances of his release Monday are still unknown.

"He has been released and is well; this is the only thing that matters now," said the Chaldean patriarch, expressing gratitude "to all those who mobilized to obtain Father Hanna's release."

On Aug. 15, the solemnity of the Assumption, Father Sirop, 34, was returning home after celebrating Mass in St. Jacob's Church in the Al Dora district of Baghdad, when he was seized by three gunmen.

Days later, Benedict XVI expressed his closeness to the suffering of Iraqi victims and appealed to the kidnappers for the priest's release.

The apostolic nunciature of Baghdad confirmed on Tuesday, through AsiaNews.it, the release of the priest, whose mother "rushed back to Baghdad," to embrace her son.

Father Sirop is responsible for the theological section of Babel College, run by the Catholic Church in Baghdad.